Protestant Reformation
"The righteous shall live by faith" (Romans 1:17) "I understood that the righteousness of God enables the just to live, that is, by faith. A merciful God justifies us by faith..." Martin Luther stated this in his writings some twenty-five years after he was attacked for his views of the church, and right before his death. The Protestant Reformation destroyed religious unity of Western Europe. Scholars, for the first time, were challenging the Catholic Church with new ideas on Christianity. This impacted several things through out Europe. Christian beliefs were being looked at differently, was the church right or were the men of the reformation ideas' right? The middle class was listening to men like Luther and his idea of justification by faith, and they were revolting against the church. The role of the individual was taking its place with every man wanting to be his own priest. The Catholic Church had a campaign to combat these activities of the Protestants, but the above three topics were hit hard with the Protestant Reformation. There were several men who started to take the Catholic Church's ideas apart. The man who stared it was Martin Luther. Luther was troubled with the possibili
ty of achieving salvation. Martin began coming up with his own theories. He developed an order of theology known as "Justification by faith" meaning that there was nothing that the believer couldn't do to earn salvation. Only Jesus Christ could grant salvation. This went against the Church. They believed you must attend church, perform good works, receive sacraments, and several other things to receive salvation. With this idea Luther produced Ninety-five Theses. His ideas quickly spread to the peasants. With a translation of the bible, Lutheranism spread like wildfire through out the middle and lower classes. John Calvin also believed that the bible was the only source of Christian doctrine, and that there were only two true sacraments. He also believed in the elect. This was his theory that God had predetermined those who would be saved and those who would not. With these new ideas, the middle class and peasants were revolting against the church. They began to listen to someone else than the Church. The peasants were poverty stricken and they were burdened with heavy taxes. In Germany a revolt against landowners started. The peasants wanted to abolish serfdom and the manorial system. During this revolt the spread of Lutheranism was growing rapidly. But Luther did not support the peasants. Instead he supported the princes. From 1546 to 1555, Germany was divided by a civil war. This was between Lutherans and the Catholics over religious beliefs. This became a time of religious
Some common words found in the essay are:
Lutheranism Calvinism, Catholic Church, Council Trent, Protestant Reformation, Europe Christian, Luther Calvin, John Calvin, Ninety-five Theses, Leyden Simons, Luther Luther, catholic church, protestant reformation, middle class, justification faith, middle lower, own priest, church role individual, church ideas, lower classes, revolts church, church reformation, middle lower classes, catholic church ideas,
Approximate Word count = 1005
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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